Overview

In 2017, Bovada made its long-awaited return to the poker industry. The company had been in the wings for some time since the fallout of the US market and with it were branded under the name Bodog. The company are essentially the same and since they relaunched the casino back in 2016, the poker room has returned almost 12 months to the day later. The company are currently owned by the PaiWangLuo network, formerly known as Bodog and launched in 2004.

Poker Games

Before we jump in what games you are able to play at Bovada, we wanted to touch on the overall standard. In truth, it’s pretty mixed. There are many sites out there that will tell you the standard is really bad, but from our testing we found it more middle of the road than anything.Yes, there will be times, especially at the lower limits, where games are really quite terrible in standard, so you can really clean up if you’re patient. But, like a lot of poker sites, as the stakes go up, so does the standard. Now, we aren’t saying that they aren’t beatable, far from it, but take other reviews with a pinch of salt and we highly recommend that you find your own way for this. One mas fish, is another man’s shark!

But, we will add that the features that we have added above do lead to a slightly poorer standard of play across the board. The lack of access to a HUD and the addition of anonymous tables means that most regulars won’t want anything to do with a site like Bovada, making it a great place for amateurs.

In terms of what games are on offer include a decent range. Your first choice is that of Zone Poker, which is essentially Bovada’s version of Rush Poker. This is where you are in a pool of players and after every hand you jump to a new hand at a new table. The stakes for this start at 2c/5c and work up through to $1/$2.

Your more traditional cash tables are a mix of Texas Hold’em, Omaha and Omaha High/Lo. There is a mix of no limit, pot limit and fixed limit games, with table sizes including from heads up, 6 max and full ring. Stakes start from 2c/5c and work right up to $10/$20, although we will highlight that traffic at the higher stakes is a little slow going, so you may need to be patient to get these stakes going. Anything around the $1/$2 mark and lower is generally pretty busy around the clock. ​

Software Features & Graphics

The first thing to notice about the Bovada software is that it’s a little old school in both design and the fact that you need to download the poker client to play. We will add at this point that the website does include a huge amount of info about games and promotions that are on offer, so it’s well worth checking this out as well.

The fact that the site looks like it was designed in 2005 doesn’t actually deter for us, in fact, we think it looks great. We are probably doing it a little injustice by stating that it looks old as it functions way better than that, but it does give off that vibe.

As soon as you land on the table though, you know that it’s definitely not old school and we think that the design is on point. The tables are actually very customisable and you need to enter this settings section via the lobby, not the table itself. You get all the usual choices such as four coloured deck, table colour, deck colour, show pot total, all in percentage, rabbit card and literally tons more. It’s defiantly one of the more customisable that we have come across, which we think is a massive positive.

The standout feature on site has to be that of anonymous tables. With these games, it means that you are able to keep changing your username, so people will never know who you are. The concept was to get away from regulars hunting down new players and instead forcing them to play with anyone who sits. Of course, you don’t have to keep changing your name if you don’t want to but the idea behind it probably works better if do so.

Another feature on site is that they have banned HUDs (Heads UP Displays). Again, this has been brought in to help the causal player counteract the regular players. The combination of the above two points actually make for some really nice games on site, of which we will talk about in the next section.

The quick seat function is recent addition to the site and it allows you to basically jump into games automatically. This means that as soon as you choose the game that you want, it auto finds you a seat and away you go.

Mobile

The Bovada poker app can be accessed via the browser of any iOS, Android or Windows Phone tablet/smartphone. While their browser-based client does not feature any tournament action yet, it does offer a good selection of Texas Hold'em and Omaha cash games. You can also indulge in a few games of their Zoom Poker high-speed poker format from your mobile device. If you're looking to play bitcoin ring games at a high traffic poker network then Bovada is the best option available right now.​

Sign-Up & Privacy

Bovada is not anonymous. You will be required to supply your address, email and other details at sign-up. You may also be asked for additional KYC/AML information when you request a payout.​

Deposits & Withdrawals

Bovada accepts both Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and both deposits and payouts are processed free of charge. $20 worth of cryptocurrency you can minimum you can deposit or withdraw. Deposits appear in your account almost immediatley and payouts are usually processed within 48 - 72 hours. ​

Bonuses & Promotions

New accounts to Bovada are going to be able to grab a welcome bonus worth up to $500. The bonus is essentially a 100% match on your opening deposit and with it you will need to earn your bonus back through playing at the real money games.​The redemption rate will depend on the amount of points that you earn, which works through a series of levels. For example, Level 1 will mean you need to earn 15 Poker Points to get $5 of your bonus earned. Level 2 will need 85 points for $20 return of your bonus and so on. Poker points are awarded based on the amount of rake contributed to cash games or fees spent on tournaments. You get 3 points for every $1 spent on tournament fees and 1 point for every $1-$3 in raked cash. ​

Support & Security

Bovada have created an in-depth "Help" section that includes useful bitcoin tutorials and videos that should answer most of your questions. If you need additional help, you can email or use the live chat feature to interact with one of their customer support agents. Unlike most bitcoin-only poker room, they also offer a phone line that you can call to talk to an agent: 1-800-953-0584​.​

Summary

First off, it’s great to see Bovada coming back into the fold with what we think is a really good poker room. The industry needs companies like Bovada firing on all cylinders, so hopefully they are able to get back to their best.

There is very little to grumble about on site at all really. We liked the link with the website and the poker room offering you info on what’s happening and once you got into the poker section, you had stacks of games to choose from with a good selection of players to try and take some money off.​Moving forward you would expect a little upgrade on the design of the site, especially the lobby section, but again, it’s something that works and isn’t essential. Overall, there’s a lot to like and Hopefully we can get this brand back to where they were.